The torc is much larger than usual examples and is regarded as the best found in England in more than a century.
Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

A gigantic gold torc, so big one expert thinks it may have been worn to protect a pregnant woman, has been found by a metal detectorist in a ploughed field in Cambridgeshire. It was made from 730 grams of almost pure gold more than 3,000 years ago, and is regarded as the best found in England in more than a century.

“There was a lot going on in bronze age East Anglia,” said Neil Wilkin, the curator of bronze age Europe at the British Museum, “but it’s been a while since we’ve had anything as hefty as this.”

Torcs are usually described as collars, with the longer ones thought by some to have been worn as belts, but Wilkin checked in shops and said this torc was longer than even extra-large waist measurements of men’s trousers.

Wilkin said they were never found buried with the remains of the dead, and were clearly associated with life – he wondered if it could have been loaned by the tribe to be worn as protection by a woman in late pregnancy.

Alternatively, he thought it could have been a magnificent ornament to give extra value to an animal about to be sacrificed, adding: “It would fit a goat or a sheep.”

The site and the finder have remained anonymous, but the discovery was reported to the local finds liaison officer through the network of archaeologists recording such finds – including treasure which must by law be reported and voluntary reporting of lower value but historically priceless finds. The Treasure and Portable Antiquities schemes are run through the British Museum, which reported the latest haul of 1,008 treasure objects and 82,272 archaeological finds in England and Wales.

Part of a hoard of 463 silver coin clippings dating from around the 1640s, which were found in Gloucestershire. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

The torc was reported to Helen Fowler at a finds meeting at Peterborough Museum, who said she was “gobsmacked” when it came out of the finder’s briefcase. The last torc she had handled was bracelet sized, but this one was far too big to fit on her weighing scales and she had to borrow a box from the museum to take it back to her office.

Wilkin said the workmanship was astonishing: the torc was shaped from a square section bar of gold, and then twisted and burnished. “If you take callipers, and measure the gaps between the twists, they are absolutely spot on accurate.”

The torc is still being valued, but it is hoped Ely Museum will acquire it, with the reward shared between finder and landowner. The slightly shorter and lighter Corrard torc, found in Northern Ireland, was valued at up to £150,000 three years ago.

One of the oddest recent treasure finds was a criminal’s hoard of hundreds of what look like blackened toenail cuttings, from Gloucestershire. They proved to be clipped fragments of 463 silver coins, dating from the reigns of Charles I and II, some with the names of the monarchs still legible, snipped off neatly with shears when the Treasury had offered to swap the new machine-made currency for the old handmade coins. Clipping meant the person got a new coin and a little scrap of valuable silver – a capital offence. “It’s an interesting question why this hoard was never retrieved and melted down – maybe he was hanged,” said the British Museum coins expert Barrie Cook of the onetime owner.

A looped mount for an Anglo-Saxon hanging bowl, found in a field in West Sussex. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Other finds included a unique object, though there must originally have been at least two more identical pieces: a looped mount for an Anglo-Saxon hanging bowl, beautifully inlaid with coloured enamel and glass. It was found in a field near Littlehampton, West Sussex, by Tyndall Jones, a retired sports outfitter. He felt shy about showing it to his local finds officer, because he feared it might be comparatively modern.

“I was quite surprised when I showed it to her and she was absolutely jumping up and down with excitement,” he said. It was valued at up to £1,500, and Jones offered to buy out the landowner’s share so he could give it to Littlehampton Museum, but instead they agreed a joint donation. “It’s such a pleasure finding a piece like this,” Jones said, “but I never felt I was the owner, only the caretaker. It should be seen by more people.”